Saturday, June 14, 2008



Stan da Man.

3 comments:

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I love that Bierce quote. Seriously, I'm going to make that my new "battle-cry".

J said...

Yes. Lieutenant Ambrose Bierce saw heavy combat in Civil War (read his Chickamauga--as intense as Poe or something) and had a rather bitter view of life (easily termed "cynical," but really rather tragic, though he never loses his sense of biting wit). He's sort of the American Diogenes, I'd venture to say (HL Mencken said something like that).

Bierce realized that American politics (if not global politics) was essentially a farce, years ago. And he wasn't as conservative as some PC-crats might interpret him: writing for Hearst, he was taking on the railroad barons and financiers way back, including Stanford. He actually sounds nearly anarchistic at times. Bierce then walks away from everything, rides off into the desert (legend has him joining Pancho Villa in Mexico, where he was probably killed).


Hearst's writers, including Bierce, and at one time Mark Twain, were originally sort of the "good guys" fighting the railroad barons and tycoons--only latter does Willie establish his empire, ridiculed in Citizen Kane. Same semi-bright movie buffs have argued that the Joseph Cotton character (who plays a cynical-reporter, who later turns against Kane/Hearst) in Kane is based on Bierce. Bierce was like Hunter S. Thompson cubed, way before gonzo was born.

J said...

Ah yeah man dig "minor booze" too. Swingz, like nearly all Kenton band stuff (and without the vulgarity of the usual Basie like stomps). The baldy alto boy not quite Art Pepper or Zoot but half bad. Stan K not such a bad ivory maestro either.

Custom Search

Blog Archive